Fair warning: If a man looking like The Office’s Dwight Schrute attempts to lure you into the back of his van with a bowl full of candy, always, always say no.

But if you’re Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and such entrapment leads to deep philosophical conversations, sitar music, and a promotional plug for your website, well, all’s good. Gordon-Levitt and Rainn Wilson huddled in the back of Soul Pancake’s sweaty van for this meeting of the minds, where they pondered the existence of original creativity. “My point of view would be that every idea is original… or none of them are,” says Gordon-Levitt, who created the collaborative art site, hitRECORD. “That all of us are completely unique people so anything that you say or do is original in that it’s unique to you. No one’s ever said it like you said it. And in that way, everything’s original. But in another way, you’re a combination of what you’ve heard. You know, Romeo and Juliet? Shakespeare didn’t come up with that.”

Whoa.

Of less existential importance, Gordon-Levitt listed his five favorite things in pop culture: Godard’s Alphaville, the Beatles’ Revolver, Salinger’s Franny and Zooey, The Matrix, and Looney Tunes.